What's new

On this page some of the most significant changes are explained. To see the complete list of changes and bugfixes please
click her.

Version 3.84

8. oct. 2018File pair option moved to main window

Some times you want file pair renaming and some times you don't. For easy access the option
to turn on and off this setting has been moved to the main window.

Video date and time tags

Tags for using video date and time tags has been added to the program. The field is not always available
for video files, but with video files that originates from a phone, this field often has a valid value
usable for renaming in Advanced Renamer.

Script console

Until now it has been difficult to debug JS renaming scripts in Advanced Renamer. With the new JS Console
you can sent debug information to the console to easier find errors in scripts. Use app.log('') to debug
to console.

Version 3.83

20. aug. 2018Import CSV data for use with the new tag <Csv:X>

With this functionality data from a CSV file can be imported into Advanced Renamer and
access through the <Csv:X> tag. The X is a numeric number representing the index of the column,
1 being the first column in the file. The data imported can be used in any edit box supporting tags.

Notice the difference from the existing functionality from which you can import files, where this
imports data instead.

Note, as with the TV show import, you will have to add files to the list before performing the import.

Option to enable or disable sorting of files when adding with drag and drop

When adding files by drag'n drop from Windows Explorer you can choose to add the files in the order
selected in Windows Explorer or to add them in alphabetic order. The original option was only to add
sorted, then in 3.79 it was changed to add files in the selected order. Some like it one way, some the other,
and now you can choose which one to use. The default value will be the original: Sort alphabetically on add.

Sort by pattern

Since the beginning of time (Advanced Renamer 1.0), you were able to sort by most of the visible columns in
the list. With the "Sort by pattern" menu item in the item list right click menu, the list can be sorted by
values not present in a column. Instead the list will be sorted by the evaluation of a tag or a pattern
containing tags. This way you can sort by any metadata available to Advanced Renamer, including values
extracted from ExifTool.

Version 3.77

17. apr. 2017Rename file pairs with the same new filename

A file pair is when the base name is the same but the extension differ, like this pair:
Img_2021.jpg
Img_2021.tif

When renamig those and keeping the file paired up while using tags like <Inc Nr>, mark the checkbox
"Rename file pairs with the same new filename" in the Settings window. When done, using this pattern in the
New Name method:
Italy_<Inc Nr:001>

This can also be used to transfer meta data values from the original file to the other member of the pair. Ex.
by using the tag <Img Width> and <Img Height>.

Version 3.75

6. mar. 2017New tag: <Rand Str>

In addition to the existing <Rand> tag which only supports random numbers, a tag for adding random strings has been
added. The new tag can be found in the Advanced Tags menu.

GPS Values override

Advanced Renamer can rename files based on GPS coordinates embedded in image files, adding country and city to the
file names. This is very useful for photos taken with iPhones. Finding the correct city is not as easy as one would imagine.
The geo database contains many cities of varying sizes. Advanced Renamer chooses the best possible match by distance and size
of the city. This is most often correct, but sometimes it is needed to correct the city. This can now be done by clicking the
GPS Values buttons and overriding the collected information. The button will light up when GPS tags like the <GPS City> or
<GPS Country> is present in one or more methods.

Metadata batch write (registered users only)

In addition to renaming files Advanced Renamer can now also change embedded metadata like the Date Taken value of JPG EXIF metadata.
Most JPG EXIF values can be changed this way.
The window for doing this is simple and requires some manual work. But it is still much faster than opening each file one at a time
to change metadata. The Action menu can be used to copy the value of one file to all the other files.

Version 3.73

21. aug. 2016List replace method

Even though Advanced Renamer supports using multiple methods in one batch, and even using the same method multiple times, it
can be time consuming when you want to replace many different text phrases. For that the List replace method is easier to use.
Text phrases in the left column is replaced with the corresponding value in the right column.

Version 3.71

15. feb. 2016Name collision rule: Ignore

The new Ignore name collision rule will allow the program to skip items in the list when the target filename already exists.
This also applies to duplicates found by examining the complete list of files in the batch and predict any duplicates.

Version 3.68

1. nov. 2015Unix Timestamp tags

Unix Timestamps are good giving file names a numeric value representing a timestamp. Unix Timestamps represent seconds since january 1 1970.
New tags are <UnixTimestamp>, <UnixTimestamp Modified>, and <UnixTimestamp Created>.

Version 3.61

14. jan. 2014Window for configuring the command line utility

The command line version of Advanced Renamer has been included within the package for many years but now you can also configure
it from within the window based edition of the program. The window can be used to configure the command switches available in
the command line in an easier way than typing directly in the console. When done the command can be copied to the clipboard for
later insertion in the command line terminal or the command can be saved in a .bat file for execution.
The new window is available from the Program -> Command line configuration menu item

New tags: <Dec Nr> and <File Line>

Two new tags have been added in this release. The <Dec Nr> tag will add a decrementing number to the filename. Usually
the <Inc Nr> tag and a reverse sort will do, but there are circumstanses when a decrementing tag is desirable.

The new <File Line> tag works line the <File Content> tag but yields a whole line, by line number, to the file
name.

Version 3.59

18. aug. 2013New tags: <Video Title> and <Video Genre>

If available in the video files added to Advanced Renamer, the two new tags <Video Title> and <Video Genre> can be used to
add these meta information to the filename. Don't get these tags confused with the <TVShow Title> and <TVShow Genres> which
download the meta information from a database on the Internet instead of retrieving the information for the file meta data,

Control zero padding in date/time based tags

Until now it has not been possible to add date and time based values to file names without padding values below ten with zeros. All
the date and time based tags can now be customized like this:
Year tags: <Year:00> for 2 digit years.
Day tags: <Day:0> for 1 digit days when below 10.
Hour, Min, Sec tags: <Hour:0> for 1 digit hour below 10.

This apply to all date/time based tags including Img, Created, Modified, and TVShow.

Month tag output has always been customizable like this:
<Month:0> for 1 digit months when below 10.
<Month:00> for leading zeros up to 2 digits.
<Month:xxx> for short textual month (jan, feb etc.).
<Month:Xxx> for short textual month with first character in upper case (Jan, Feb etc.).
<Month:XXX> for short textual in upper case (JAN, FEB etc.).
<Month:xxxx> for long textual month (january, february etc.).
<Month:Xxxx> for long textual with first character in upper case (January, February etc.).
<Month:XXXX> for long textual in all upper case (JANUARY, FEBRUARY etc.).
For textual month the local Advanced Renamer language is used.

Version 3.55

26. feb. 2013Import information from TV shows

With a new import functionality, TV show information can be imported from tvmaze.com.
Information about show name, episode name, season and episode number, and air date are available through tags after successful import.
For this to work a working internet connection is required and it is also necessary for the files in the list to be ordered correctly.
Multiple seasons of the same show can be renamed at once, but multiple independent tv shows must be renamed one at a time.
New tags are:
<TVShow Genres>, <TVShow Year>, <TVShow Title>, <TVShow Season>, <TVShow EpisodeNumber>, <TVShow Day>,
<TVShow Month>, <TVShow StartYear>, <TVShow EpisodeTitle>.

CSV file import

Advanced Renamer has always been able to save the file list as a CSV file. Now you can also import a file list from a CSV file. The import
window will help configure the import settings. If the file contains a column for new filenames, a List method will be added prepopulated
with the new names.

New method: Swap

A new rather simple method has been added for this relase. It is a method that can swap to parts of a filename divided by a separator. It
can be used to swap artist and track name for a music file or season number and episode name for a tv show.

Version 3.53

27. sep. 2012New checksum tags

The new checksum tags <MD5>, <SHA1>, and <SHA256> can be used to insert the checksum in the name of the file to be renamed.

Version 3.50

20. aug. 2012Unicode support

With the release of version 3.5 Advanced Renamer gets Unicode support. Unicode is a character set able to mix characters from different
parts of the world. Until now the software has yielded unpredictable results when mixing say Chinese characters with English characters.
Extraction of meta data from images and audio files will now also work proberly when they contain characters from a different codepage
than what the local Windows installation is configured to use.

New image formats

Support has been added for JPEG 2000 and the 3D JPEG formats MPO and JPS. 3D JPEGs are special images containing two images skewed to
form a 3D picture on display devices with support for these formats. Advanced Renamer can read image size from the files and Exif information
will also be extracted if present.

Script method

For those of you with programming skills this new script method based on
Mozilla SpiderMonkey's implementation of JavaScript, will
supply many new possibilities. This method is meant for the advanced users of an already advanced piece of software. By constructing a
small script file names can be changed in much more complex ways. Also, this method will make it easier for myself to help those of you
with very complex renaming problems. Remember, don't hesitate to contact me about your specific renaming task.
Documentation and examples of use will be added as soon as possible. Also the JavaScript MDN
can be of great help.

ExifTool integration

Advanced Renamer has support for many file formats including music, video and image formats but now Advanced Renamer has got support for
even more meta data information by integrating Phil Harveys ExifTool.
When a file is selected in Advanced Renamer the ExifTool button can be used to get an overview of all the meta data information ExifTool
support for this particular file. The new tag <ExifTool> can be used to extract these meta data and put them into new file names.
Even though native support is preferred, adding new file formats takes time and since this tool is already available, why not make a
good use of it.

Disable active methods

When a method in the method panel is deactivated it will be ignored by the batch process. It is an alternative to removing the method
from the panel altogether.

Explorer context menu for both 32 and 64 bit Windows

Until now the "Add to Advanced Renamer" right click context menu has only been working when using a 32 bit version of Windows. Any
64 bit users could use Advanced Renamer but not the explorer context menu. Now both users of 32 bit nad 64 bit Windows can enable the
menu from the settings windows of Advanced Renamer.

Folder panel

There are many ways to add files and folders to Advanced Renamer: Drag & drop from Windows explorer, Add files menu item, explorer
context menu, and the Insert keyboard shortcut. Now Advanced Renamer has got another way of adding items to the list. Click the "Folder panel"
menu item in the top of the window and a panel displaying folders and files is enabled.

Version 3.20

17. january 2012Command line automation

In this version of Advanced Renamer a special command line executable has been included. This executable (arenc.exe) can execute a batch
represented by a batch method file and a list of files and folders to perform the bacth on, without requiring any user interaction. This
way of performing batches is meant for users with special needs and a high degree of computer experience.
The command line tool can be used as a scheduled job in a server environment or as part of another batch job.

New tags: Video tags

With the new video tags you can add video information to the file name. A large variety of formats and codecs are supported, including
DivX, XviD, WMV, MKV, OGM, and many more.

With the new tags you can work with these video and audio information: Width, Height, FrameRate, Duration, Codec, and Bitrate

Many modern digital cameras and smart phone cameras can record GPS coordinates inside the pictures they take. In this version new latitude
and longitude tags can be appended to the file names.
But numeric coordinates is not very informative. Three new tags can be used to add the city, country, and state to the file names. When these
tags are used, the coordinates are used to lookup the names of the closest cities in an online database.

New method: Trim

This is probably the simplest of all the methods. This new method will remove characters present in the text box from the beginning and
the end of file name. Other methods can already handle this job but this methods makes it easier and faster to do.

New method: Renumber

This clever method can detect existing numbers in file name and replace them with new number sequences or adjust the existing numbers.
The method can be used to adjust a sequence of unordered numbered names e.g. 003.txt, 004.txt, 006.txt can be changed to 001.txt, 002.txt, 004.txt.
This task was previously an impossible one with Advanced Renamer.

Version 3.15

29. october 2011New tags: File size

Add the size of the file to the new file name. You decide if the file size should be added as bytes, kilobytes, megabytes, or gigabytes.

Version 3.13

25. september 2011 New method: Remove pattern

The Replace method has always been able to remove a pattern from a filename by supplying an empty text in the field "replace with",
but this was not always obvious to new users. This new method is easy shorthand for using the Replace method to remove
patterns from a filename.

List method: Apply to button

Most methods have the Apply To select box to specify which parts of the filename the method should apply to. The List method
has been missing this select box for some time, but now it available to this method too. Most often the only thing you want to
change is the name and not the extension of the file, but in some cases you also want to apply the method to the extension.

Last result box

Previously when the program was done performing the rename the progress dialog would stay on screen until the user chose an action
in the window. It has been changed to close automatically and instead show the result of the batch in the lower right corner of the
main window. If one or more errors occur during the batch, the errors will be shown prior to the dialog closing. After running a batch
files that are either erroneous or successful can be re-added.

Display of unchanged columns

Advanced Renamer has columns for original values and columns containing the corresponding new values. In this version the columns
containing the new values will become gray if there is no change to the value. It is most notable when setting up a rename batch
where some files will end up with the same name as before the rename.

Version 3.10

8. july 2011New tag: Word

The new Word tag can be used to extract a word from the file name. The parameter in the tag defines which word should be
extracted. <Word:3> will extract the third word of the file name. Characters considered word separators can be set
up in the settings window.

New tag: Img Subsec

Some digital cameras support a burst mode where the camera takes several pictures in one snap. When naming these images
based on Exif date and time values they often end up with the same names because they are taken within the same second.
Fortunately some of these cameras store an extra time value called sub second. This value can be used to sort and name
the images correctly.

Name collision rule changes

Before this release the name collision was set up once in the settings dialog. Since different renaming scenarios require
different name collision rules, this was not the best place for it. It has been moved to the main window above the list to
make it easier to set up the rules specific for the current batch.
Two new rules have also been added: Append Image Subsecond and Append Pattern. The Append Image Subsecond will add the value
from the Exif Subsecond meta value while the Append Pattern will allow you to add a custom pattern to the end of a file in
case two files end up with the same file name. The separator between the file name and the appended part can also be
customized.

Select desired Exif value for image date and time

Jpeg images contains various date time values, date time original, date time digitized, and date time taken. These timestamps
are usually the same, but they can differ if the image has been edited with photo editing software like Photoshop, Exif date time
values can change. In the settings window of Advanced Renamer you can change which value you want to use for the
image date time tags and for the image date time column.

Method preset file association

In the past method presets were stored in the same location as other settings. This made it difficult to share the presets between
computers, friends, or colleagues. Method presets are now saved in custom locations in files with a .aren extension. This allows
you to find the presets faster and open Advanced Renamer with a preset preloaded.

Insert tag window updated

When working with tags you can click the little button next to the edit field and work with the tags in the
Insert Tag Window. This window has been updated with extra functionality for field supporting numeric values
as an alternative to tags and it has been updated with information about how to use regular expression. Since
regular expressions can be used more places than before a description of how to use them was needed.

New Case method: Change case based on pattern

If you only want to change the case of a part of the file name as opposed to the complete file name you can use this new
pattern based option in the New Case method. You can supply a pattern including tags and/or regular expressions that should
get changed to either lower or upper case.

Use search pattern in Add, Remove, and Move method

The fields in Add, Remove, and Move method can now also handle search patterns with tags. The pattern it automatically
translated into a numeric position in the file name. If the Use Regular Expressions checkbox is checked the search pattern
will also support regular expressions. Of course you can also type a numeric value directly as always.

Version 3.0

3. mar. 2011New batch modes: Copy and move

In addition to renaming files and folders Advanced Renamer can now also copy and move the items.
The new folder is written in the edit field next to the batch mode drop down box. Tags can be used to
customize the folder name for each item in the list individually. The New Path column can be used to
validate the new path name before starting the batch process. Any folder in the path will be automatically
created when the file is copied or moved.

Selective rename

Choose only to rename some of the files in the list by manipulating the checkbox next to the files.
By default all files will be marked for batch processing but you can choose which ones you want to rename.
Use the associated functions in the right click menu to use this feature more effectively.

Set file timestamps from pattern in filename or directory name

If you have files with dates or timestamps in the file name you want copied to the created or modified attribute
of the file Advanced Renamer can now recognize the values based on a pattern. The <Year>,
<Month>, <Day>, <Hour>, <Min>, and
<Sec> tags can be used here to match values in the file or parent
folder name.

Context menu "Add to Advanced Renamer" in Windows Explorer

A Windows Explorer context menu has been added to make it easier to add files and folders to the list. Right click on
one or more items in Explorer and select "Add to Advanced Renamer" to add the items to the list.Note: This feature has to be enabled in the settings dialog.

New tag: Substr

A new advanced tag called <Substr> has been introduced. The tag can be used to
insert a piece of the original filename into the new file name. The tag takes two parameters, an index and
a count. Example: Filename is "Hello my friend" and the tag is configured <Substr:7:2>
the result will yield "my".
But it gets more interesting when using the tag for searching for phrases. The index and count can be text
phrases instead of numbers. Example: Filename is still "Hello my friend" but the tag is now configured
<Substr: :2>. The result is the same. But instead of copying 2 characters from index 7 we search for the
first space character and copy 2 characters from that location. This is useful when using this tag on several files with a
similar pattern but with name parts of various lengths.
This tag is especially useful for customizing the output folder when using Move or Copy mode.

Menu item for removing non ID3 and non image files from the list

In addition to the option of removing files with errors you can now also remove all files without ID3 tag or image information.

When dragging files from Windows Explorer into Advanced Renamer, there is no doubt how the items should be added. But when dragging
folders into the list there is two ways these folders can be added, either as the files in the folders or the actual folders for folder
rename. When adding the folders as files you get the choice of including subfolders and to supply a filename mask.
This dialog will also show when adding folders through the Windows Explorer context menu.

Stay current with new updates

When Advanced Renamer starts it will automatically check for upgrades online and display a message if a new version is available.
It will not take focus away from the current task but simply just state the fact that a new version can be downloaded.

Save to CSV file

If you want to save all the data shown in the grid to a CSV you can use this new feature. You will then be able to work with the
file or folder data in another program like Microsoft Excel.